Pazham Pori | Ethakka Appam | Nendra Pazham Bajji

Pazham pori is a delicious banana fritters made with a special variety of banana know as Nendra pazham. Nendra pazham is a regional famous banana variety in the state of Kerala and it's known for its unique texture and taste.

Nendra pazham(both ripe and un ripen) is great for cooking and a lot of dishes can be prepared with it and this  Pazham pori is one of  dishes made with the well ripen nendra pazham.  

Nendra Pazham

As i said earlier, this fritters is only made with nendra pazham and you can't substitute other varieties of bananas for this recipe. In the states of Tamilnadu and Kerala, you can easily find this banana in most of the stores. Here (both in US and Canada), you can find them  in Indian Stores around the Onam festival time. 

Frying

I have used the Sunflower oil for frying but heard that coconut oil is used for this recipe for great flavor and taste. So you can try frying in coconut oil too if you want.

It's such an easy recipe and can be prepared in less than 20 mins. So it makes an idle chai time snack. Do give it a try and i'm sure that you will love it.

Pazham Pori | Ethakka Appam

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Serves : 3 
Recipe Category: Curry | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Pazham Pori, Ethakka Appam, Nendra Pazham Bajji,Indian Banana Fritters Pazham pori is a delicious banana fritters made with a special variety of banana know as Nendra pazham.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

Nendra Pazham(ripen) - 1

All purpose flour - 1/2 cup

Sugar - 1 tbsp

Salt - 1/8 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/8 tsp

Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp

Baking soda - a pinch

Water - as needed

Oil - for frying

Procedure

First peel the skin of the nendra pazham and cut into thin slices in preferred length(as shown in below pic). Next in a bowl, add the all purpose flour, sugar, salt, turmeric powder and cardamom powder. Mix it all well together. 

Next add the water little by little and make a thick batter like the bajji batter. 

Heat the oil for frying. Once the oil is hot(check by add a drop of batter and it should come up in  3-4 secs) , take a slice of nendra pazham, dip it in the batter so that both the sides are well coated with the batter and then drop it in the oil gently. Do the same for the remaining.

Cook the pazham pori in the medium heat for 3-5 mins or until the outside layer is crispy. Once it's well cooked, remove it from the oil and place it on tissue paper.

Delicious Pazham Pori is ready. Enjoy it hot with a cup of chai !

Related : How to make Rava Appam

Notes:

• Don't add too much baking soda. Otherwise it will absorb a lot of oil.
• Here i have used crushed cardamom seeds instead of cardamom powder.

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Ribbon Pakoda, a delicious and crunchy snack made from the mixture of rice flour and besan. It's one of the easiest snacks to prepare at home with basic pantry basic ingredients and I used to make these types of snacks at least once in a month at home to fill our snack box. 

We prefer these kinds of home made snacks more than any pre-packed store snacks.Though I have been preparing this snack for years now, somehow I didn't share this easy recipe so far, as deepavali is nearby, I thought sharing this recipe now would be helpful to all those who are looking for easy diwali snacks to prepare on this occasion. 

Before checking out the recipe, let's see some FAQs

What's the correct temperature to fry these Ribbon pakoda?

Add a pinch of dough into the hot oil, it should come up immediately . That's the perfect temperature to fry ribbon pakoda.

Why is my ribbon pakoda chewy instead of crunchy even though it has a golden brown color?

Oil temperature is too high, so the outside turns into a golden brown color before the inside get cooked. So it's chewy. Reduce the oil temperature and make sure to cook it in low-medium flame for a crunchy texture.

Ok, now let's see how to make this delicious Ribbon Pakoda. If you have any other questions, leave a comment, I will try to answer to the best of my knowledge !  

Ribbon Pakoda | Ola Pakoda

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 6 
Recipe Category: Snacks | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Ribbon Pakoda, Ola Pakoda,Seeva, Pepper Ribbon Pakoda Ribbon Pakoda, a delicious and crunchy snack made from the mixture of rice flour and besan.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

Rice Flour - 1 cup

Besan/ Gram Flour - 1/2 cup

Pepper powder - 1 tsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp(heaped)

Butter - 1 tbsp

Water - as needed

Oil - for frying

Procedure

First take the rice flour, besan, pepper powder and salt in a bowl. Mix it all well together. Melt the butter and add into the flour mixture.

Mix it with your hand until the butter is well mixed with the flour. Next, add water little by little and make a soft pliable dough.

Take the murukku press and add the ribbon pakoda disk into it and fill 3/4 of the press with the dough and close the lid. Heat the oil for frying and squeeze the dough directly into the oil as concentric circles.

Cook it on low-medium flame until it gets a nice golden brown color and the sound "shh" stops. Remove from the oil and drain it on a paper towel.

Once it's cooled down completely, break it into small pieces and store it in an airtight container. Yummy Ribbon Pakoda is ready to munch on any time.

Related : How to make Sattur Sev

Notes:

• Store it in a clean dry container to retain its crunchiness for a longer time.
• Instead of pepper powder, you can use chili powder too.
• For vegan version, instead of butter, you can add some hot oil in the flour and mix it well.

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French Palmier Cookies | Elephant Ear Cookies

Palmier Cookies, a crispy, flaky and sweet french cookie made from the puff pastry sheets. It's one of the easiest cookies that you can prepare from the store bought pastry sheets. All you need to do is simply roll out the pastry sheets, brush some butter, sprinkle sugar and then fold into classic heart shape. 

While baking, the puff pastry is turned into super light & flaky cookies and the sugar caramelize and give that gorgeous golden color, overall it makes such a fancy cookies in no time and it tastes great as it is or with a cup of chai/tea or coffee. 

Palmier Cookies is also known as "Palm tree" or pig's ear or "elephant ear " cookies. It's one of my favorites and used to buy them from costco often, but once i knew how easily it can be made at home, I never looked back into the store bought cookies.  Like store bought cookies, you can make it as giant cookies or as small cookies like i made it here.

I'm more into miniature things and also making these little heart shaped palmier cookies reminds  me of the "Little heart " biscuits from India. It's another one of my childhood favorites, so i'm leaning towards these cute little heart shaped cookies more than the giant cookies. 

Related : How to make Indian Bakery style Vegetable Puffs 

How to fold the pastry sheets to get heart shape  

Check out recipe instructions where i have shared step by step pictures for easy understanding. You can fold the sheets towards the center once or twice as per your liking.  In the below pictures, the puff pastry is double folded and the rest all are single folded.  So depends on your preference, fold once or twice. 

Also, these cookies spreads a lot, so give enough space in the baking try to expand and get that beautiful shape.

Related : How to make Indian Bakery Style Egg Puffs 

Now let's check out on how to make these delicious and easy palmier cookies.

French Palmiers Cookies | Elephant Ear Cookies

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Serves : 30 to 40 cookies 
Recipe Category: Cookies | Recipe Cuisine: French
Palmier Cookies, French Palmier, Elephant Ear cookies, French Cookies, Puff Pastry cookies, Palmier Cookies, a crispy, crunchy and sweet french cookie made from the puff pastry sheets. It's one of the easiest cookies that you can prepare from the store bought pastry sheets. All you need to do is simply roll out the pastry sheets, brush some butter and sprinkle sugar and then fold into classic heart shape.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Puff Pastry - 1 
Butter - 1 & 1/2 tbsp
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Cinnamon powder - 1/2 tsp(optional)*
*See the notes section in the end

Procedure

First bring the puff pastry to room temperature. Dust the flour generously on the working surface and roll the puff pastry into thin square shaped dough. Cut the sheet into half. I have used one half without cinnamon and another one with cinnamon.

Brush the sheet with butter and then sprinkle the sugar generously and fold the sheet from the end towards center with leaving little space in the center as  shown in pic below

Again fold the sheet towards center and make sure that the folds touch together now(Refer pic below). Once again brush the sheet with butter and sprinkle sugar and finally fold two ends together(like closing the book).

Transfer the sheet on to the parchment lined baking tray and keep it in the refrigerator for 30 mins and then cut the sheets into half inch thickness(refer pics)

Related : How to make heart shape potato bajji

Preheat the oven @ 420 F. Transfer the cut out pastry sheets on to the parchment lined sheets. Again brush the top with butter and sprinkle little sugar.

Bake it for 15 to 18 mins. In between take the cookies out once and flip it for even cooking on both sides. 

Tasty & Flaky Palmier Cookies / Elephant Ear cookies are ready.

Related : How to make Mini Apple Turnovers with puff pastry 

For more baking recipes, check out my collections.

Related : How to make heart glazed Cornmeal Cookies

Notes:

• Add more or less sugar as per your liking. I have used only 1 & 1/2 tbsp of sugar for one half of the sheets.
• Keep the puff pastry at refrigerator for a while helps to cut the cookies precisely.
• Cinnamon gives great flavor to the cookies.
• Step by step pics are without cinnamon and the final pics are with cinnamon.
• Instead of double fold, you can make these cookies with single fold also
• These cookies spread while baking, so give a little space while arranging them in a baking sheets.

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Wheat Biscuits | Atta Biscuits

Wheat Biscuits, a crunchy mildly sweetened tea biscuits. It's one of the easiest biscuits to make in minutes with basic ingredients from the pantry. Ever since ST started working from home, i have been baking a lot of tea time snacks. In the past, a pack of store bought cookies would last for at least a month since we had tea time together only on weekends. 

But nowadays, all the snacks would happen to disappear like anything. So to keep it on the healthier side, i prefer homemade cookies so  experimenting a lot on cookies that go well with tea/chai and this wheat/aata biscuits is one of my successful bakes. It's very mildly sweetened and perfect for tea time. 

Years back, when we first returned from the US to India, we had no idea whether we're coming back or not, so i had bought a few things and one among them was 100 pieces of cookie cutter.  Unfortunately to this day, never get a chance to use them once.

Still having it safely somewhere in the loft at our place in India, one of the cons of moving frequently. Now that i'm baking cookies/biscuits a lot, looking for some cookie cutter set but still haven't found one to my liking.,so as of now i'm making only rectangular and round cookies :-) But you can use the cookie cutter for this cookies and cut into your favorite shapes. 

Ok, coming back to the recipe, here in the recipe i have used aata flour/ Indian wheat flour to make these biscuits, but i had tried these biscuits with whole wheat flour(that are available here in US/Canada local store) before, it also turned out good. So use whichever you prefer. Now let's check out how to make these delicious aata/wheat biscuits.  

Wheat Biscuits | Aata Biscuits

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Serves : 20 small biscuits 
Recipe Category: Biscuits | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Wheat Biscuits, Aata Biscuits, Cookies, Tea Biscuits, Indian Biscuits Wheat Biscuits, a crunchy mildly sweetened tea biscuits. It's one of the easiest biscuits to make in minutes with basic ingredients from the pantry.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Wheat flour/Atta - 3/4 cup
Powdered Sugar - 1/4 cup
Butter - 1/4 cup
Milk - 1 to 2  tbsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp

Procedure

Preheat the oven at 350 F. Take butter(should be at room temperature) and sugar in a bowl and whisk it well.

Next sieve the flour, salt, baking soda and cardamom powder into the butter and sugar mixture. Mix it well with your hand until it looks like a crumble.

Add a tbsp of milk at a time and make a soft dough. Transfer the dough on to the parchment paper.

Roll the dough into 1/4 inch thickness and cut into round shape using cutter or  use any lid like me.Gently transfer into the parchment lined baking tray. 

Prick the holes on the cookies using tooth pick and place the baking tray at the oven and bake it @350F for 15-18 mins.  

Once baked, the biscuits starts to get brown on the sides and on the back of the biscuits. Transfer the biscuits on to the wire rack and let it cool completely. Instead of rolling and cutting the dough using cookie cutter, you can simple make a small balls out of the dough and bake it like the last pic below.

Tasty and healthy Wheat Biscuits are ready !! Once it's completely cooled, store it in the airtight container to maintain crispiness. 

For more baking recipes, check out here.

Notes:

• Powdered sugar incorporate with the butter easily and quickly.
• No need to refrigerate the dough, you can bake them once the dough is ready
• Instead of cardamon powder, you can use vanilla extract also.

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Shortbread Cookies | Easy Cookie Recipe

Shortbread Cookies, a rich buttery delicious, melt in mouth cookies !!! It's a  traditional Scottish cookies made from butter, flour & sugar and it's named so because of its crumbly texture not stretchy or chewy. Unlike many cookie recipe, shortbread cookies doesn't have any leavening agent like baking soda or powder. Still they are so light, crumbly and utterly delicious cookies !!! Instead of butter, shortenings are also used in the recipe, but i would highly recommend to use butter for great flavor.  

When i heard the name short bread cookies for the first time, i was wondered what is it ??So,.

What is short bread cookies and how is it different from butter cookies??

Actually there is no difference between those two in terms of ingredients. The main difference is,  in short bread cookies, the sugar is comparatively less compared to  the butter cookies. It makes them crumbly and melt in mouth texture.

Next is baking temperature, short bread cookies are baked at lower temperature to retain its pale color. Where as butter cookies are baked at little higher temperature and also the extra sugar sugar in butter cookies give those dark colors because of caramelization. 

Couple of year ago, bought a pack of french cookies from costco, we both liked it a lot. It's rich buttery cookies with moderate sweet and a hint of salt  and we used to buy them whenever we were there, after a while, guess costco stopped to carry them. As these cookies has a hint of salt in it, ST always say that these cookies are so similar to it every time he had a bite. Adding salt in this cookies is optional but highly recommend because it gives a nice kick!! 

But for me, it reminds me of the butter biscuits that are available in bakery shop around Tamilnadu, India. Those bakery biscuits are quite different from the regular biscuits, they are super crumbly and melt in mouth texture.  

I'm not sure how they are made but these short bread cookies tastes so similar to them. Guess, it's similar recipe but different name in different place !!! As we both like these cookies a lot, i have been baking these cookies a lot during this lockdown. Now let's check out on how to make this delicious cookies.

Butter Cookies | Butter Biscuits

Preparation Time : 1 hr | Cooking Time : 10 mins | Serves : 12 
Recipe Category: Cookies | Recipe Cuisine: Scotland
cookies, easy cookies, short bread cookies, christmas cookies, basic cookies,scottish cookies Shortbread Cookies, a rich buttery delicious, melt in mouth cookies !!! It's a traditional Scottish cookies made from butter, flour & sugar and it's named so because of its crumbly texture not stretchy or chewy.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Butter - 5 tbsp
All Purpose Flour/Maida - 3/4 cup
Icing Sugar - 1/4 cup
Vanilla extract - 1/4 tsp
Salt -1/4 tsp
* see notes section at the end for all FAQ

Procedure

Take the room temperature butter in a bowl and whisk it for 2 mins and then add sugar & vanilla extract.

Again whisk it well until all combined together. Next add the flour and salt. 

Mix it with your hands well until it all comes together as single mass(if the dough is dry and doesn't come together at this stage, add a couple of tsp of milk). Transfer the cookie dough into cling wrap and shape it as rectangular block. 

Cover it well and refrigerate for 1 hr. Preheat the oven @ 350 F & Line the baking tray with parchment paper and keep it ready. Take the cookie dough from the refrigerator.

With sharp knife cut into 1/4 inch pieces. Place them on the baking tray.

With wooden stick poke some holes on each cookie. Place it on the preheated oven and bake it for 10-12 mins. Turn the cookie tray one time in between.

Remove from the oven and let it cool a bit and then transfer into wire rack to cool completely.
Once it's completely cooled. Store it in airtight container. 

If you want chocolate covered cookies, melt about 1/2 cup of chocolate chips(you can use milk chocolate, semi-sweet or dark chocolate as per your liking, i have used semi-sweet chocolate) in a double boiler method or in microwave until it's all melted. Then dip each cookie in the melted chocolate and place it on the parchment paper. If you want any sprinkles, just add it immediately so it sticks to the chocolate well. Let it sit for an hour or until the chocolate sets ! 

For more baking recipe, check out here

As i baked the below batch for the school bake sale, i have added some colourful sprinkles :-)

Notes:

• Instead of making rectangular shape, you can cut into any shape using cookie cutter.
• Make sure to use the butter at room temperature.
• Icing sugar helps to give the smooth texture.
• Cookies firm up when it's completely cooled down. 
• It stays well for a week at room temperature. 
• Keep the dough at refrigerator helps to cut them nicely. 
• To make icing sugar at home, for 1 cup of sugar add 1 tbsp of corn starch and grind into super fine powder and use the required quantity in the recipe.
• Here i have used unbleached all purpose flour.
  
  
  

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